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Just a couple months removed from the reveal of BATTLECRY, our new team action game from BattleCry Studios, we’ve already had our first community tournament for the game.

Hosted in the Bethesda Exhibit Hall at QuakeCon 2014, eight teams — some with close bonds, others created on the fly– competed for the BATTLECRY Inaugural Tournament title. In a mini-documentary featuring developers from BattleCry Studios and combatants, we follow the tournaments final four teams: Hoagies for Hunger, The Art of Warfare, Ultimo Continue, and Team Impromptu. You can guess which team we named based on their last-minute formation.

In the end, there could only be one winner. Watch the video above to find out who claimed the title. To everyone that competed and watched the tournament… thanks for being a part of history!

QuakeCon might be North America’s largest LAN party, but it’s definitely not the highest. In a new mini-documentary, Tek Syndicate tells the story of players participating climbing the summit of Mt. Elbert — to have a LAN party at the summit!

The game of choice? DOOM! Watch how they battle elevation sickness (and each other) as they climb a 4500 ft.

Moving from CO to TX, BattleCry Studios ventured to QuakeCon 2014 for the game’s first-ever free-play matches and competitive tournament. In addition numerous attendees playing the game, some members of the gaming press also got their first stab at post-Black Powder Treaty combat. Get new impressions at MMOBomb.com, PCGamesN, and Shacknews.

And while players played BATTLECRY, members of the team talked about it. Design Director Lucas Davis answered a number of questions for MMORPG.com. Here’s an excerpt…

MMORPG: How does advancement work? Is it skill-based, weapon-based, or both?

LD: As your warrior progresses through levels, you’re able to unlock your skill tree, which is used to build customized loadouts with. The skill tree will allow you to power up your weapons, but whatever you want your weapon to look like, that’s what it will look like.

In celebration of the game’s first community tournament at QuakeCon, we’re releasing an all-new wallpaper for the game. Head to www.battlecrythegame.com to download.

Inspired by the colors and rendering style from 19th century frescoes and by the efficient techniques used by World War I Naval painters, the mural depicts a battle scene between the Royal Marines and Cossacks taking place near Novi Sevastopol (English: New Sevastopol). A suspended city with three bridges, one coming from Asia, another from the Cossack Empire, and third one from the West, Novi Sevastopol is a key strategic point in the Pansophic era, the last stop for all good arriving from the mythical Silk Road before they reach their final destination. A massive metal structure overlooking the entire port is the largest trading post on the Black Sea.

As announced in a recent QuakeCon update, we’re excited to be holding the first tournaments for BATTLECRY — our new team-based action game from BattleCry Studios. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s planned in this year’s Exhibit Hall.

BATTLECRY Free-Play Matches

Beginning Thursday morning, we will have first-come, first-serve free-play matches of the game’s first WarZone in the QuakeCon exhibit hall. Winning teammates will receive a limited edition BATTLECRY Tournament t-shirt, and all participants will received a signed lithograph from the game’s creative director, Viktor Antonov.

For your chance to play and score the shirt, note our Free-Play schedule for the weekend…

Thursday, July 17

11:00am – 12:00pm
1:00pm – 2:00pm

Friday, July 18th

11:00am – 12:00pm
1:00pm – 2:00pm
3:00pm – 4:00pm

Saturday, July 19th

11:00am – 12:00pm

1:00pm – 2:00pm

3:00pm – 4:00pm

These Free-Play matches will also give you quality gameplay experience should you elect to participate in our…

Inaugural Team Tournament (!!)

In addition to daily free-play matches, our Inaugural Team Tournament will be running Thursday – Saturday. For this tournament, we encourage clans/teammates/friends to group up and note the following guidelines:

With Wolfenstein out for more than a month now, Giant Bomb’s Patrick Klepek caught up with MachineGames’ creative director, Jens Matthies, for a must-read interview. Topics covered include: what it takes to make a Wolfenstein game, spoilers [alert!] about the ending, and what’s on the horizon for MachineGames.

Here’s an excerpt…

Giant Bomb: So you actually liked the idea of trying to resolve the potential contradictions in the story you wanted to tell with the legacy of the storytelling in Wolfenstein?

Jens Matthies: Yeah, of course. We want this to be part of a greater saga. That said, of course, this game stands completely on its own. It’s not a requirement that you play anything of the previous games. You can be completely new to Wolfenstein and have a complete experience. But we also want to build upon things that have been established on their own.

Who else is putting their post-mortem wrap on Wolfenstein? The Escapist. One of the site’s feature writers, Shamus Young, shares his surprise in how great the game ended up being — drawing comparisons to Valve’s Half-Life 2. Read Shamus’ article here.

Going from what’s already out to what’s coming later this year, we move to The Evil Within. And with The Evil Within at E3, you also get plenty of face time with Shini Mikami. Read a pair of interviews with him at both Metro UK and Telegraph.

Previewed in a dark room, we had to be careful not to make players scream at the top of their lungs as we strolled by. Below are some E3 highlights…

Platform Nation – “Bewildered by the blank wall, I turn around and the hall goes all hazy, riddled with static, and then the doctor and patient disappear after the kid gives some sort of creepy psycho premonition speech. The hallway ends at a door that wasn’t there before, and the other side appears to go on interminably. It’s disconcerting to say the least.”

Closing out our wrap up, read impressed impressions from folks that tried BattleCry Studios’ self-titled debut. Among recent previews, USA Today ranked the game as one of their Top 10 game of the show. Previews below…

Quest Gaming Network – “Fast and fluid, pretty yet gritty; BattleCry Studios seem to know what their doing, which is no surprise with vets from all around the industry in their ranks.”

Tom’s Hardware – “BATTLECRY in its present state was a blast. A number of us played as the Cossacks while another set played as the Royal Marines. Because there is no gunpowder in this alternate timeline, players must rely on melee and basic ranged weapons such as swords, bows, energy-powered blades and more. That made the gameplay feel a bit more personal and frantic.”

USA Today – “It’s a fascinating approach for an online multiplayer game, which anyone with a headset and public chat settings enabled will tell you is sometimes a hostile experience.”

E3 week is always a bit crazy, but we still manage to have a blast while showing off our newest games. There’s plenty of highlights: from a BATTLECRY showdown featuring our friends from Respawn Entertainment, candid interview shots, and seeing folks playing the game in mood-setting darkness.

Missed some of the E3 coverage on BATTLECRY? Fear not, we’ve got reactions, gameplay, and more in a new roundup.

Kicking off things is Gamespot, who featured the BattleCry Studios’ game in their video feature of the Impressive PC Games of E3 and interviewed the studio’s executive producer, Rich Vogel. Watch that interview above.

What else is being said about the team combat action game? Check out more impressions below.

MMOBomb – “Mobility in BattleCry is also surprisingly fast. Characters automatically sprint while out of combat making traversing the medium-sized E3 demo map Fracture a quick affair. Players also have access to a magnetic grappling hook ala Bioshock Infinite which propels them across the sky and onto the map’s more vertical locations.”

Game Informer – “I’m always skeptical of multiplayer-focused free-to-play action games, but I enjoyed what I played of BATTLECRY. The action is fast-paced but also felt fair, and required less twitch reflexes than cover-based shooters.”

The Escapist – “BATTLECRY is definitely something to keep an eye on. It’s fast, exciting, fun, and equally brutal and beautiful. When you do get in the game, though, stick with your squad and don’t wander off alone. This is clearly a game designed to be played with a team.”

Game Revolution – “My short time with BATTLECRYwas nutty, running about the battlefield as a Cossack Duelist, taking advantage of Royal Marines running around alone. Due to physical space limitations at the Bethesda booth, our game only held 16 players, but the full game actually supports 32 at a time. Seeing the juxtaposition of the graphics with the kooky animations and the pools of violently-hewn blood was definitely a unique experience.”

Pocket Lint – “The studio confirmed that there will be no pay-to-advance route through the game, so you can’t throw cash at it and become invincible. To earn you’ll need to acquire medals and salutes from your co-players to translate into iron.”

Welcome to the WarZone! BATTLECRY, a 32-player online team action game, is the first project from our Austin-based team, BattleCry Studios.

In the reveal trailer above, get a first look at the world envisioned by Viktor Antonov (Half-Life 2, Dishonored) — where gun powder has been banned following a cataclysmic world war at the dawn of the 20th century. Traditional warfare is now a relic of the past and all conflicts are settled head-on by elite teams of chosen warriors in sanctioned WarZones. Trained and bred for battle they face off for the glory of their nations.

To learn more on BATTLECRY – planned to be in Beta in 2015, visit the game’s official website — featuring an introduction blog post from Rich Vogel — and the BATTLECRY social media channels:

The Verge – “Its alternate take on a post-WWI world features a slick steampunk look, complete with strange technology and classy looking soldiers.”

GameSpot – Antonov’s distinct touch was immediately apparent in the map I played on, an alternate-history take on an industrial English city that manages to feel both grimy and oddly beautiful at the same time.

Eurogamer – “What these brief glimpses do illustrate is intent, and BattleCry’s team seems absolutely genuine in its desire to do something different in the F2P multiplayer market, and clearly very aware of the hurdles it faces in getting there. With a handful of intriguing ideas, and a surplus of ambition, if nothing else BattleCry will be one to watch for in 2015.”

GameFront – “The PC-based multiplayer title is easy to pick up and offers a lot of potential for depth, but at its heart, it’s a melee game that handles similarly to titles like God of War.”

Destructoid – “From the five (or so) matches that we got to see, BattleCry looks like it’ll be the perfect title to scratch an itch that a sizable portion of players have. It’s easy to jump into, and it’s very fast-paced.”

GamesRadar – “Like a classic game of Quake or Unreal Tournament, Battlecry delivers a steady stream of twitchy excitement. Whenever I wasn’t charging sword-end first into the fray, I was speeding to the nearest clash with dodge-rolls and gap-crossing swings on grappling hooks.”

PC Gamer – “…after Antonov’s work on Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, I’ve got strong hopes that it will look distinct.”

GameZone – “… Battlecry has the core to be a really fun and entertaining online battle arena game. ”

Rock, Paper, Shotgun – “BattleCry’s a melee-focused third-person multiplayer game, with up to 32 stylish soldiers murdering each other. And they are quite stylish, as the art direction is by Dishonored visual designer Viktor Antonov.”

GameReactor – “It’s visceral. Mere seconds into our first session our head was separated from the rest of our body and the blood kept being spillt with decapitations and flying limbs being the rule rather than the exception.”

We are pleased to announce the new website for BattleCry Studios! The new site offers a background of the new studio as well as easy access to available job openings in Austin, Texas. Once you’ve explored the site, head over to their new Facebook and Twitter to get the jump on the latest and greatest news and announcements!